Tories Introduce Motion to Fix Canada’s ‘Broken’ Bail System

Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security Chair Raquel Dancho waits to begin a meeting in Ottawa on Aug. 16, 2022. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Conservative Party MP and public safety critic Raquel Dancho tabled a motion in the House of Commons on Feb. 2 asking the government to reform its bail policies in light of rising crime and recent murders of police officers.

“Canadians across the country are growing increasingly alarmed by the violent crime wave impacting every major community and in rural communities across the country,” Dancho said in opening the debate on her motion.

“Canadians are waking up every day to headlines of violent crime, police officers being murdered, people being murdered on public transit every single day. So that’s why we’re here.”

The motion asks that elements of Bill C-75 be repealed and that bail laws be strengthened so that those who are prohibited from possessing firearms and are accused of a serious firearms offence do not get bail easily.

Bill C-75 became law in June 2019 and included changes to bail provisions, citing in part the “overrepresentation of Indigenous persons and accused from vulnerable groups who are traditionally disadvantaged in obtaining bail,” according to background information from the Department of Justice.

The Conservatives have blamed the Trudeau government’s policies for the rise in criminality.

Dancho noted data from Statistics Canada indicating that crime went down 26 percent during the Harper years and has increased 32 percent since Trudeau took power.

“First and foremost, I would say that I don’t believe the manipulation of stats that often are portrayed coming from the Conservative Party of Canada,” said Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux, the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader.

“If you listen to them, you would think that there was never any crimes when the Conservatives were in power.”

World Bank data displayed on Macrotrends.net shows that crime was mostly on a downward trend when Harper took power in 2006, albeit for a spike under the Liberals in 2004-2005. It went down during the Harper years and began the upward climb in 2015 when the Liberals returned.

Police-reported crime severity indexes as reported by Statistics Canada show a clear break and increase after 2015. The index tracks changes in crime severity.

The index was at 100 in 2006 and dropped to 66.9 in 2014. It was 73.7 in 2021 after peaking at 79.8 in 2019.

The violent crime severity index has increased more dramatically since 2015, starting at 70.7 at the time and reaching 92.5 in 2021.

Justice Minister David Lametti spoke during the debate and said Canada has a “strong and effective criminal justice system” but that “things can always be improved.”

He added that the Conservatives were leveraging the recent tragedies of the killings of police officers to their advantage.

“I want to reassure Canadians that if someone poses a significant threat to public safety, the law tells us they should not be released on bail,” he said.

“I’m disappointed that the official opposition is using tragedies to try to score political points.”

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) constable Grzegorz Pierzchala was shot to death on Dec. 27 by a suspect who was a repeat violent offender out on bail.

NDP MPs also recognized the rise in crime and the need to address the situation.

“The need to address bail reform is a huge issue, because we’ve seen senseless acts of violence,” said Charlie Angus.

“I’m asking my colleague, would they support our call to investigate bail reform to make sure we get this right, that we keep people safe.”

All the premiers from provinces and territories have called on the Liberals to strengthen the bail system in a mid-January letter sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police made a similar plea after the death of Pierzchala.

The Liberals are facing the dilemma of stopping crime with a perspective geared primarily towards public safety, or continuing to address what they assess to be “systemic racism.”

Lametti told the House his government needs to make sure that “any measures taken will not exacerbate the over representation of indigenous peoples, black, and racialized Canadians in our jails.”

The recently passed Bill C-5 to remove mandatory minimum sentences for a number of firearms offence, including armed robbery, was adopted as a measure to reduce that overrepresentation.